Cigarettes and Tobacco News

Nov 19, 2007 -- The U.S. government asked yesterday that a federal appeals court uphold a ruling that Philip Morris USA and other U.S. cigarette-makers violated anti-racketeering laws by marketing low-tar cigarettes as healthier alternatives to full-flavored brands.

Gladys Kessler, a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, issued her 1,653-page decision in August 2006. The manufacturers won a de­lay of the ruling while they appeal.

"The district court's opinion re­veals a decades-long coordinated campaign to deceive American consumers about the toxicity and addictiveness of cigarettes," the government said in a brief filed with the U.S. appeals court in Washington.

The government argued that Kessler did not abuse her discretion when she ordered the cigarette-mak­ers to stop labeling products "light" or "low-tar." It also asked the court to reconsider a decision it made before Kessler's ruling that the cigarette-makers will not have to forfeit their "ill-gotten gains" from misrepresenting their products.